NTSB Judge Questions FAA Authority Of Small UAVs

The friendly skies may finally be opening up for small UAVs in precision agriculture (as longs as they remain below 400 feet).

Yesterday, National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) administrative judge Patrick G. Geraghty granted a motion to dismiss in a case that will likely set a new legal precedent, striking down current FAA regulatory authority over UAS operations by ruling against two FAA Memoranda (2005’s Memorandum AFS-400 UAS Policy 05-01 and a 2008 revision) and a 2007 FAA Notice OF Policy (07-01) as “not meeting the criteria for valid legislative rule making.”

Geraghty states in his ruling: “Significantly, both Memoranda specifically eschew any regulatory authority…stating respectively that ‘this policy is not meant as a substitute for any regulatory process’…As policy statements of an agency are not binding upon the general public these policy Memoranda cannot be, and are not, found as establishing a valid rule for classifying a model aircraft as a UAS.”

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